Page 12 of Byte

“Pizza sounds good. What kind do you want?”

“Personally, I like cheese, but get whatever you want. I can pick the toppings off.”

Instead of agreeing or disagreeing with her, I placed a call to my favorite pizza restaurant and ordered a pizza for her and a pizza for me.

“Byte, I can’t eat an entire pizza by myself,” she said as soon as I ended the call.

“Well, I can,” I told her. “And they don’t sell by the slice.”

“Mmm,”she groaned after taking a bite of pizza. “I forgot how good this is.”

“They don’t have good pizza in Cedar Valley?”

She shook her head. “Not like this.”

“I guess we won’t be having pizza while I’m hanging out with you next week.”

“Can I ask you something?”

“You can, but I reserve the right to not answer,” I teased.

“How did you get to my house so fast?”

“Oh, that’s easy. I was in Cedar Valley when you called.” I had no idea what she was going to ask me, but I was definitely relieved it was something simple.

“Crap. I hope I didn’t interrupt a date or something important.”

“You didn’t,” I assured her. “I had dinner with an old friend who lives in the area, and then I stopped by a bar to have a drink before heading home. Actually, I should thank you. You called at the perfect time.”

“How so?”

“I’d been trying to shake this barfly for a while. I was trying to be nice about it, but she just wouldn’t take the hint. Then you called,” I explained.

“Does that happen often?”

I nodded. “More than you’d think. There are a lot of women out there who seek out members because they want to be a part of the club. Sort of like the women who try to get pregnant by military men for the benefits.”

“Does the club have a premium healthcare plan I don’t know about?”

“I think it has more to do with the family aspect. Sometimes, people who don’t have any family will do anything to be a part of one.”

“Speaking of family, what’s the deal with yours? I don’t think I’ve heard you mention them.”

I swallowed thickly. No one had asked me about my family in years. In fact, it had been so long that it took me a moment to decide what to tell her. “That’s because I don’t have one. My father disappeared before I was old enough to remember him,and my mother died when I was eighteen. I didn’t have an extended family, so once she was gone, it was just me.”

“Oh, Byte, that’s terrible. Is that why you joined the club? To have a family?”

“Pretty much,” I lied. While the Blackwings did become the family I never had, I joined the club because I wanted their protection and a safe place to hide.

I’m not sure if it was my short answer or something else, but she seemed to pick up on my unease about the topic and changed the subject.

After dinner, she excused herself to the guest room to study for an upcoming exam while I spent the evening searching for information on Chad Higgins. As much as I hated to admit it, I found very little on Chad, and what I did find wasn’t helpful. And that wasn’t good. Because I could find almost anything. In my experience, there was only one reason for someone’s digital footprint to be virtually nonexistent—because it was intentionally hidden.

5

GABBY

Despite the events of Friday night, I felt well rested and ready for the week when I woke up Monday morning. Though, I did feel a little bad for Byte. I was in the middle of my last semester of school and my schedule was brutal. I had to remind myself frequently that it was almost over.

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